So 632 friends

Imagine if you had to choose your top 632 friends to invite to a gala affair to announce the opening of your new movie like Dan Brown did? Who would you invite?

I was mentioned in the acknowledgments of Angels and Demons, the book. We were quite close in those days. Somehow, we got dropped off the A list and all I have to show for it is a bunch of signed Dan Brown books. LOL I need to sell them on ebay!

I think Dan would approve of that!

But seriously, when someone becomes rich and famous, what makes them change? I remember when we’d go out to dinner and to the movies. Some weeks we were broke, some week they were broke, but we always worked it out. We always had fun. We went to NY together when he was signing book deals. It was so much fun. We had to stay at the Edison Hotel because it was like $94 a night. We went to the Starlight Cafe and just goofed around the city.

When he finished his book, he called at like 7pm and said lets go celebrate at the truck stop. We dropped everything and met them there. He was so happy. So were we!

It was around this time that he said since he had to cancel our vacation to Acapulco that we needn’t worry, when his books were made into movies he’d be taking us all to Tahiti.

Man, I sure hope they sell soon!

My Swedish Friend

has started HER own blog, here: http://balltorpskan.blogspot.com/

My Sister

has started her own blog. Check it out: http://aneagereye.blogspot.com/

A Wonderful Story

I got this link from Andy Carvin. It’s a wonderful story about…well, just read it and you tell me what you think.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/15/AR2008081502356_2.html

Another new tool that can be used for collaboration

It’s a must see!

http://www.dabbleboard.com/main

More Bird News! Wow, I am really exciting!

Last night I had a little extra money from teaching after school enrichment. We marched ourselves to the store and I bought some more feeders and some different seeds. I put the seeds in the various feeders and then first thing this AM I hung them from the trees that border the marsh. After the excitement of seeing the cardinal, I was hoping for some instant gratification but alas, it didn’t happen.

I have been told that goldfinches like grape jelly and orange slices. Is that true? If so, how does one put those out for the birdies?

I need some advise!

Feeding the birds

Last weekend, I decided to really take the job of feeding the birds seriously. My backyard, being the marsh that abuts the Atlantic Ocean, is often loaded with wildlife. There are ducks and pigeons and robins and the red winged blackbird. But my super favorite is the cardinal.

I particularly sought to attract the beautiful red cardinals. I think I got my love of birds from my mom. One of my very early memories is of either she or my dad tramping through the snow with the bucket of seed to make sure the bird feeder was full.

I had tried a few other times to feed the birds but my husband has always discouraged me because of the mess. Now that we have dogs and birds inside, a mess is a given so I figured it can’t be much worse than that.

So I went to Agway and got some good seed and put out the feeders. I didn’t see much interest throughout the week but then again, I worked all week and got home too late to even check on the feeders. Today though I saw two cardinals (or the same one, twice), so I must be on the right track. Also, I found a robin’s egg on my lawn that had recently released a  baby robin! I wondered if the robin had eaten at the feeder?

During my search to find information on birds and their eating habits, I came upon a really neat blog:

http://janetwilkins.wordpress.com/

Check it out!

Interesting blog post

I am not practicing what I preach here; some of these may not, in fact, be true. But I enjoyed reading the list. Enjoy!

http://mythoughtsideasandramblings.com/2008/05/19/useless-facts/

Under a dark cloud…

Well just after I finished posting about Kennedy, I was called to a meeting. It turns out that one of our former staff members, who left a couple of years ago to start a family, has stage 4 colon cancer. She has a 5 year old and a 3 year old. Somehow that just doesn’t fit my idea of fair. She and my daughter went to breast feeding classes together after the births of their babies. What the heck?

And one more…I finally located a friend whom I have been trying to find for a couple of years. He emailed me back and asked who I was…turns out he has an inoperable brain tumor and is already living in his Bonus Round. A sweet 44 year old guy.

I have no more words tonight.

Ah…smell the campfire!

Here I am, back at camp. The smells of campfires all over the campground are intoxicating. I have asthma and it’s not the best thing in the world for my physical health, but my mental and spiritual health is full and happy and satisfied. There is nothing like it. I probably could go off Lexapro if I could just live up here!

Of course, there are caveats. Why do I love it so much? Well, no bill collectors call me up here. I park my car and don’t move it again until it’s time to leave to go back home. I get all the groceries I need at one time and am loathe to go out again. Unless it’s very very important. (like I need a bottle of wine or something.)

Also, I have friends here that I don’t have at home. I rarely even see them all winter long, but we do talk on IM and phone and email. It’s so nice to be with them again. We catch up on stuff, take a pulse on where we all are now, and see how the summer goes for us all. We figure with the price of gas and the high cost of living in general, that we are all very lucky to be back here this summer. Two nights here now cost $78. That includes water and cable. I am able to still watch my Red Sox and I can bring my laptop to the office and get Internet. So it’s worth it to me.

The owners take great pride in their campground. There are flowers everywhere. The bushes are pruned. There are some rules about driving slowly and keeping dogs out of playgrounds and off the beaches. All the rules contribute to the place being clean and orderly.

Sad for me, I have to go home today. Wah!